


Call It a Date

by kookykoi



Series: MCU Rare Pair Bingo 2019 [5]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Mention of Thor, Pre-Relationship, Rare Pairings, Slow Burn, mcu rare pairs bingo 2019, mention of jane's previous relationship with thor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 13:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19831069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kookykoi/pseuds/kookykoi
Summary: Jane never had much interest in cellular biology. That was until she saw Doctor Betty Ross give a talk about it.





	Call It a Date

**Author's Note:**

> My next entry for the MCU Rare Pair Bingo 2019 event, with the prompt: Jane Foster.
> 
> As always, all mistakes are my own and kudos and comments are much appreciated if you enjoy the fic.

Jane Foster never had much interest in cellular biology; she preferred to look up at gas giants rather than look down at microscopic cells. Therefore she didn’t waste time remembering the names of cellular biology pioneers or keep up-to-date with the latest break-throughs or journal articles.

So how she ended up sitting in on a cellular biology talk at the latest Culver University Scientific Research Conference, she wasn’t sure. She considered leaving it and finding something else to bide her time until it was her turn to present but ultimately she stayed. Maybe because the presenter was a fellow Culver University alumni, maybe because Jane was comfortable in her seat, maybe because all of the other talks being given at the same time were equally or more unappealing to her interests.

Whatever the reason for Jane choosing to stay, she settled in and turned to a clean sheet in her notebook, just in case she happened to want to take any notes. Around her, more people filed in and filled the seats and there was a gentle hum of murmured conversations in the air. The hum quieted when the presenter took to the stage and stood at the podium.

Jane recognised her, remembered seeing her around campus when she was still studying and working at Culver. But this was the first time Jane had the opportunity to really study her.

“Good morning everyone, thank you for coming. My name is Doctor Elizabeth Ross and I will be taking you through my latest research into the unusual cytoskeletal structures of superhuman cells.”

Elizabeth began her talk and Jane was enthralled. She hung on every word and was suddenly more interested in cellular biology and cell structures and why superhuman cells were different than she had ever been in her life. But what was so bewitching was not the subject matter, but the person speaking about it.

Elizabeth possessed a special kind of poise that Jane couldn’t look away from. Jane had never been so poised and despite not caring about it previously, found herself torn between admiration and jealousy over Elizabeth’s demeanor. Jane wasn’t going to be changing her own delivery style any time soon but something about Elizabeth gave her pause.

Jane admired Elizabeth’s voice too and how she managed to maintain a soft tone that was underpinned by authority and knowledge. It was as if Elizabeth was so sure of her ability that she didn’t need to shout or project her voice. Again, Jane wasn’t going to change her own voice to match Elizabeth’s but this was another reason for Jane’s building admiration for the other woman.

And then there was the fact that Elizabeth was gorgeous, the kind of gorgeous movie stars dream of being. From her smooth and flawless skin to her bright blue eyes to her raven black hair to her full lips to her bone structure. Jane had seen beautiful women before and admired them but Elizabeth took her breath away. The only other time she had felt so infatuated so quickly had been with Thor.

Thor. Jane had broken off their relationship sometime ago, well before the Blip, and yet she still caught herself pining for him. There hadn’t been anyone since him to distract her mind from straying back to memories of them together. What took Jane by surprise the most was the thought that maybe Elizabeth could be the one to finally stop Jane thinking of Thor.

But Jane had never been in a relationship with a woman before and until this point, had never considered herself attracted to a woman. This was all too much to think about at once and so Jane forced herself to concentrate on the content of Elizabeth’s talk instead. 

By the time the talk concluded, Jane had filled several pages in her notebook, more than she ever had done in similar talks in the past. The room erupted with applause as Elizabeth left the stage. Most of the other audience members then started talking to one another or filing out of the room. Jane, however, stayed rooted to the spot.

She wanted to talk to Elizabeth, ask questions about her research and maybe, just maybe, ask if she wanted to grab a coffee sometime so they could talk more. Jane was convinced them meeting for coffee wouldn’t be a date but her insides were convinced it would be and were a trembling mess at the thought of asking Elizabeth about it. Jane tracked Elizabeth’s movements as she stood to one side of the stage with a small queue of people lined up to talk to her.

“There you are!” Darcy’s voice broke through Jane’s mental processes and any courage Jane had to motivate her to talk to Elizabeth vanished. “Been looking for you all over the place. Erik and I had bets on where you’d be. Neither of us bet on this place. Wasn’t the last thing a biology thing? I thought you hated those.”

Darcy sat herself next to Jane, pulling her bag to sit on her lap. She leaned into Jane’s side, peering at the notes Jane had scribbled during Elizabeth’s talk.

“Whoa. You wrote notes?!”

“Yes, it happened to be a very interesting talk, despite what I may have said about the subject matter previously,” Jane said, her tone sharper than she intended, as she snapped shut her notebook. “Why were you looking for me?”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. called again. They want another consult. I told them you were busy since I couldn’t find you but you should probably call them sooner rather than later.” Before Jane could respond to this news, Darcy had gotten her phone out and was already calling S.H.I.E.L.D. back for Jane. “You know how pissy they get when we don’t call back *immediately*. Gods, it’s not like it’s the end of the world. Or maybe it is. Who knows?” Darcy handed over the phone to Jane as the other end of the call began to ring.

Jane took the phone but as she did, her eyes drifted back over to Elizabeth. Their eyes met across the room and Jane nearly dropped the phone when Elizabeth smiled at her. Jane broke their eye contact as she fumbled with the phone, her cheeks blushing in a mixture of frustration and embarrassment.

“Who’s that?” Darcy asked, pointing at Elizabeth who was now, fortunately, looking away from Jane and Darcy. 

“Don’t point!” Jane exclaimed, using her free hand to tap the back of Darcy’s pointing hand. 

Darcy chuckled and shook her hand. “Ouch! And since when did you go all gooey over ladies?”

“Gooey? I’m not gooey. Who said I was gooey?” 

Of course it was that moment that her S.H.I.E.L.D. handler picked up the call. “Dr. Foster?”

Jane inwardly groaned and rolled her eyes. “Agent Davidson, hello. I believe you wanted to speak to me about a possible consult.” Jane cradled the phone between her head and her shoulder as she threw her notebook into her bag and got to her feet. 

“I can see why you’re all gooey for her, though,” Darcy continued as she followed Jane out of the lecture theatre. “Not my type but yeah, wow!”

“Not now, Darcy,” Jane hissed as she reached the theatre’s doors. She cast one last look over her shoulder at Elizabeth and realised that Darcy was correct: she was going gooey over her. Jane shoved all those thoughts to one side and forced herself to focus on the call with Agent Davidson instead.

Jane ended up in a corridor off of the main atrium of the building so she could hear Agent Davidson speak clearly. The consult was going to be a fairly simple one by all accounts and it could wait until after the conference. Which meant Jane still had time to find Elizabeth and… What, exactly? Darcy’s earlier comments had gotten into Jane’s head and now she was really second-guessing herself, more so than usual whenever social behaviour was involved. No, Jane pushed thoughts about Elizabeth out of her mind again, she had her own talk to give and she needed to focus on that. 

Jane walked from the corridor to one of the other lecture theatres that were sat adjacent to the main atrium, Darcy in tow and muttering about something to do with expecting a big turn-out for Jane’s talk. Jane navigated her way through the milling crowd to the theatre she was going to be presenting in and went inside. She headed up to the stage and met with the professor who was going to be introducing her. The two of them discussed Jane’s research but before long, Darcy was tugging on Jane’s arm and interrupting them.

“Excuse me,” Jane said to the professor before turning to face Darcy. “What?”

“Look!” Darcy was pointing to someone in the crowd of people filing into the theatre ahead of Jane’s talk. She was pointing directly to Elizabeth Ross. 

“Stop pointing! What have I told you about pointing!” Jane hissed as she grabbed Darcy’s hand and forced her to stop pointing.

“You should talk to her afterwards. Get her number.” Darcy was grinning at Jane. “Because you haven’t acted like this since- well, y’know who I’m talking about. He’s been the only one I’ve known to make you blush like you are now.”

“Just go sit down and let me focus, please.” Jane eased Darcy into a nearby seat and tried not to cringe too much about how much Darcy appeared to be enjoying this. “Let me have my prompt cards and say nothing more.”

“You can have your prompt cards but I’m not making any promises about that last part.” Darcy handed the cards over to Jane and took Jane’s bag from her, an overwhelmingly smug smirk on her face. Jane chose to ignore Darcy’s smirk since she had just enough time to glance through the cards once more before the professor asked her to join her on stage.

Her presentation went well. Once Jane took to the stage, a shift happened inside of her and suddenly the only thing that mattered was science. All thoughts of nerves or Elizabeth Ross or coffee dates vanished from her mind. All that was left was her research and she revelled in the safety of that. She was riding high on the adrenaline of expressing her theories in front of such a crowd, so much so she didn’t notice how quickly time passed. Suddenly her talk had concluded, she had handled the handful of questions expertly, and the professor who introduced her was asking everyone to give a round of applause, which they did.

Jane came off the stage and was greeted by a group of excited academics who wanted to discuss Jane’s theories in more depth. This is when Darcy really came into her own. She was the one who gathered the academics’ emails and other contact details and promised them they would all get an opportunity to speak to Jane. Jane shook hands with them and nearly missed that one of them was Dr. Elizabeth Ross.

“Oh,” Jane said when she realised who she was shaking hands with. All of the other faces had blurred together but Elizabeth’s was defined and clear among the rest. “Hi. Dr. Ross. Yeah. Hi.” Jane wanted to cringe at herself but managed to keep her face clear of it. Instead she pasted on a smile as she tried to collect herself internally.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Foster.” Elizabeth smiled and Jane felt as if she was being bathed in pure sunlight. “Please, call me Betty.”

“Of course,” Jane said, making herself let go of Betty’s hand so she didn’t shake it for too long. “Please call me Jane.”

“I realise this might not be the best time to talk,” Betty said, motioning to the others who were waiting for her. Darcy was doing her best to manage their expectations though. “So I was wondering if you’d like to meet up for coffee, maybe?”

Jane’s eyes went wide, as did Darcy’s who despite dealing with one task was able to listen in on what Jane and Betty were discussing.

“Coffee?” Jane could feel Darcy’s enthusiasm positively wafting over to her about this. If only there weren't so many people around, making more noise than necessary and making it difficult for Jane to think properly. “Coffee. Yes. Actually, yes. That’d be great.” 

Betty pulled a business card and handed it to Jane. As Jane took the card, their fingers brushed together. The contact between them was brief but left Jane craving more. This, whatever this was that Jane was feeling towards Betty, was getting out of hand.

“Give me a call. I’m in town for the next few days after the conference. Or we can arrange some other time if that works better for you,” Betty said. She offered Jane a shy smile and if Jane wasn’t mistaken, there was a hint of blush in her cheeks. As if in sympathy, Jane blushed too.

Before Jane could say a word though, Darcy interrupted. “Jane is free tomorrow, all day. Aren’t you, Jane?”

Jane risked a glare in Darcy’s direction before Darcy turned back to resume her discussions with another academic. “Sorry about that,” Jane said to Betty. “But Darcy’s right, I am free tomorrow. I think. But Darcy says I’m free then I must be.” Jane couldn’t stop the cringe that worried her features. To herself, she sounded dreadfully awkward and not at all like the confident person who had just spoken on stage only moments ago. This must not be creating a good impression on Betty.

But Betty didn’t appear to mind. She nodded along to Jane’s words and offered her a kind smile. “Tomorrow works for me.”

“Here,” Darcy interrupted again so she could give Betty one of Jane’s business cards. “Now you have Jane’s number too.” Darcy dared to grin at both of them before turning away again.

“Just let me know when you want to meet,” Jane added while reminding herself that perhaps Betty wanted to discuss something related to either of their research projects instead of anything else that may or may not relate to more personal matters.

“I will, thank you.” Betty pocketed Jane’s card. “I have to head off for another meeting now so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes, tomorrow, call it a date.” Jane had blurted that last part out before thinking the wording through properly. Was it appropriate to call it a date? What would Betty think of that?

“A date is it, then,” Betty said smoothly, her eyes sparkling as she gave Jane a quick wink. That had to mean something, right?

Before Jane could say anything else, Betty disappeared into the crowd of people, leaving Jane feeling as if she was on the verge of utter panic. But instead of that panic overwhelming her, Jane let it wash through her and let it pass. 

“So, you have a date,” Darcy said in a low tone as she and Jane were ushered through the theatre towards the exit and towards the next item on Jane’s itinerary. 

Jane smiled. “Yeah, I have a date.”


End file.
